You may (or may not) know that I’ve started a new job at a company called eLearning Australia- making eLearning courses for electrical apprentices (yes it’s a new job, even though I’ve been doing this for over a year now- interspersed with teaching). So I’ve just made a webpage for the company, and I’ll be blogging there. Probably about once a month- things are quite busy.

So you check me out there, and as always, I’ll be blogging on my personal blog, and twittering prolifically.

The update is that I have just done 6 weeks of full time prac in a year 3 class, and as a result of that I have now finished University (yay!). Other news is that I finsihed that last Friday, and yesterday (Monday) I started my new job, which is really just a re-do of the job I had before I left to do prac. I’m developing the online electrical apprenticeship training, which is reallly exciting.

Look out for more posts soon on what I’m doing for my new eLearning approach, and other things that I’ve been learning about. For now, here’s a summary of some of the things I did in my classroom while I was teaching this last term.

1. The Projector.

This was one of my favourite tools for making my teaching easier, and getting the point across to the kids. It was helpful with things like Sound Waves- a phonics spelling book, because they could clearly view the activities while explained what they had to do.

It was also helpful when we started our maths investigation on castles because I could show them pictures of real castles that they could identify shapes on.

2. Computer Lessons.

Out time in the computer lab involved learning about a few things- how to write emails, how to make posters in Microsoft Publisher, and how to write things in Microsoft Word. I found these quite distressing moments in my teaching, because 1) I don’t like the programs I had to teach them, and wouldn’t every choose to use any of them, and 2) because teaching them how to use a program isn’t effective- there are too many programs out there that you can type in, for them to just learn about WORD.

3. Fitness every day.

I know this is nothing to do with technology, or computers, but I really wanted to put the balance out there. We did fitness every morning- first thing, for about 15 minutes. It was GREAT for burning off morning energy, and getting them more settled when they came back into the classroom.

4. Fruit Break.

Again, another non-teach thing, but really important. I guess one of the things I learnt about having this was for ME to have a fruit break! I think that it’s important in any job- ESPECIALLY if you work in front of a computer, to take regular breaks. The fruit isn’t necessary- it’s just good to have a walk around, and a glass of water.

Stress Reduction
One of the distinct advantages of open-book assessment is the way it reduces stress. I remember profusely, when I did open book assessments in high school, the relief I felt knowing that if my study hadn’t paid off, then there was a Index just there waiting for me to call on it. It was great for hitting the nail on the head quote-wise, and excellent for for my continued learning…

Continuous Learning
What a thought! To be able to learn THROUGH your assessment. Open book assessments mean that students have a base knowledge, and as they need to acquire more information to complete an assessment question, they can do so by researching in their text.
Regular exams require students to recall information. You start with a large range of knowledge, which you’ve acquired all week, and then as the exam progresses you don’t remember parts, or have to struggle to recall. This presents students with a loosing mindset, and does nothing for their self-confidence.

No Need To Cheat
Open book assessments also reduce the need for students to cheat. After all, their text is the same as everyone else’s. It also creates equality in the classroom and doesn’t disadvantage those students with higher workloads or other commitments.

Confidence
Confidence before an exam is really important. A positive attitude can make all the difference- you still have the stress of the importance of the exam (which research tells us can help us to perform better), but we DON’T have the stress of not knowing what we’re being presented with, and therefore now knowing if you are prepared enough for it.

Study Materials
Another really great aspect of open-book assessments is the way it reinforces the importance of the study material. I have personally had bad experiences at University where I have bought a required text book, only to find that it wasn’t referenced through the entire course, and it wasn’t useful in my study preparation.
Open book assessments really help students to see that using the text book as a learning tool is important, and it also helps students to understand the importance of keeping their work accountable (not just their opinions, but backed up by the research in the text).

There are many ways that you can apply these positive aspects to other types of assessment, and I recommend that you do. Of course, there is a time and a place for everything, and while open book assessment has its merits, it’s not appropriate for every situation, besides, it has its bad points too! Happy Learning!

Also, if you’re interested in following them on twitter (I would recomend it), then here’s Chris, Julian, Darrel, and myself.

Turning to the internet might just be the best option, but if the thought of googling through hundreds of pages of useless lesson plans, and resources that just don’t cut it, then you might like to think of a better option. The simple answer to your ‘good ideas’ problem is to network with other educators, and find a good source.

Network: My prefered method of networking is twitter. If you’re not sure what twitter is, then I wrote a blog post about it here. If you want to add me, I’m @Sunshinetalia. You will find that there are HUNDREDS (maybe even thousands) of educators on twitter, and most are more then willing to help you out and give you a few ideas. Here are some of the educators on twitter that I follow that have recently updated: @theother66, @kolson29, @dmcordell.

Once you’ve started to establish this network, then check out each person’s blog, which will probably lead to some sort of bookmarking site. My preference is del.icio.us, but I also use Diigo sometimes. Here you will find that people bookmark good sites that help them in their teaching. This is a great way of finding RESOURCES.

The Source: If it’s actual lesson plans you’re looking for, then I have a great solution. A Lesson Plan Wiki. No, I’m not advertising ANOTHER wiki I’ve created, but I am a part of this wiki, and I think it’s a really good idea.

It’s definitely more relevant to university students studying teaching, and new teachers, then it is to ACTUAL teachers, but I’m sure that their input and feedback on the ideas, and their contribution to the Lesson Ideas page would be well worth it!

It is certaintly one of the great things about the internet that we can share ideas and resources as freely and readily as we can. I encourage you all to have a go at joining this wiki, and putting up your ideas for lesson that have worked etc. There is also an RSS of pages tagged on del.icio.us with ‘lesson’, ‘lesson plan’, and ‘education’. So if you want to tag something that would be beneficial to other teachers, then tag it with one of those, so it shows up!

So lets re-cap: First we network with twitter and find other educators, then we connect with them on del.icio.us, or diigo, or another social bookmarking site. Then we tag sites that are useful with ‘lesson plan’, ‘lesson’, or ‘education’. Then we join the lesson space wiki, and contribute our ideas, lesson plans, and reflections on types of learning!

If you like this post, you might also like: “Which free wiki provider should I use?” and “How do wikis fit into education?“

A big thanks is due to Luke, who was a big help in getting this all sorted and done. It’s not 100% finished, but if you see any problems or bugs, then please leave a comment on this post, or on the page you found it, so that I can fix it up ASAP!

I would like to take the opportunity here to give a shoutout to the Wordpress platform. Wordpress comes in many forms, but I’m most familiar with wordpress.org, wordpress.com, and edublogs.org. I find wordpress a really easy way to blog, and with wordpress.org, I can change and manipulate my theme quite easily. If you’re an educator, then I thoroughly recommend wordpress as a choice blogging platform. Edublogs is particularly good for educators, and if you want some more tips and tricks, then Sue Waters is FULL of information!

While you’re checking out my new site, why not have a look at some of the sites in my blogroll (see right of page), and also check out my twitter, and eLearning wiki.

Also, readers of this blog might not know that i have a personal blog over at Talia Carbis. So if you’re wondering exactly who I am, then that might help you out!

I make wikis about all sorts of things, and join wikis about all manner of things. My username is generally SunshineTalia, if you were looking for me.

In this post I am reviewing 3 online wiki providers. Now, this is by no means all of the options out there, and if you would like to suggest another wiki provider to try, then do so at the bottom! Please also remember that this is my PERSONAL opinion, from a professional stand point- don’t be offended if I hate a wiki that you like. Please.

Wetpaint

Wetpaint is my free wiki of choice because of it’s looks, and ease of use. It is on wetpaint that I have my eLearning Australia wiki. The ‘look’ of wetpaint wikis is excellent. They always look ‘full’, and make sense. It is very easy to insert your own header image, which is important in terms of personalising your wiki, and making it look more ‘friendly’, professional, and inviting for readers and contibutors.

I always find wetpaint to be really clear as well. I am rarely confused about where to find something, or about what certain tabs and links do what. Its simple wiki options, directly under the header, and the pages on the left hand side are easy to use and find.

Wetpaint wikis are easy to edit- just click the button, and you’re away. They also remove adds for educational wikis.

A definite disadvantage of wetpaint though is the lack of support for a range of ‘widgets’. Widgets being embedding youtube videos, slideshare slides etc. Thankfully viddler is supported by the ‘other widgets’ option, but slideshare, where I do a lot of work, isn’t.

I’d rate wetpaint 3.5/5 stars. There’s always room for improvement.

Wikispaces

A lot of educators appear to use wikispaces. I can not fathom why. I find wikispace wikis to be generally unattractive, and difficult to use.

I have not bothered to create a wikispaces wiki because I am already part of a number of wikis that use wikispaces. The unattractiveness of them is a definite disadvantage. You can’t insert your own header, so sites that want to be a professional hub, just end up being an advertisment for wikispaces.

In terms of general editing, wikispaces is the same as all the others. It’s relatively easy to do- just click the button and start typing. A real plus of wikispaces is that it supports a real range and variety of ‘widgets’, including some more education specific ones, like teacher tube.

I would rate it 2.5/5 stars

PB Wiki

BP Wiki is where I host a wiki about my internship. Unfortunately, PB wiki doesn’t really do it for me, and so my wikis has, for lack of a better work, died.

PB Wiki is set up quite differently to other wikis, and therefore takes time to learn and understand. Time that most educators, and general people, don’t have. I was never sure if I was in editing mode, or if this was the ‘real deal’, and I was also not sure what other people saw.

No header on PB either, but at least the stock standard is not completely unattractive.

I would rate PB Wiki about 1/5 stars.

Let me outline a recent bad experience I had with a set of online exams.

There were 3 fortnightly exams. Each with about 10-20 questions relating to the previous two weeks of study.

First Exam: You could do it as many times as you liked- you just needed to get 80% (eventually) to pass. Once you had done the exam, it showed you which questions you got right, and which ones you got wrong. But not the answers.

Of course, I just guessed the first lot, then printed it out. The questions I got right, I kept the same, and the questions I got wrong I just changed to a new answer. I did it about 3 times to get my 80%. But it was worth it. I actually learnt a lot- the old theory of repetition.

Second Exam: You could again do it as many times as you liked- you just needed to get 80% to pass. This time it didn’t show you which ones you got right, and which ones you got wrong. Bummer. I did the same thing though- just had to write out all the questions, and then I developed a code so that I could indicate if f I was 100% sure I was right (i.e. I looked it up and found the answer), or if I was half sure, or not sure at all. It took me about 5 or 6 tries, but I got my 80%.

The positive aspect of this exam was that I actually had to look it up. The con? I still to this day don’t know which of my answers were right, and which were wrong. Which sucks. I am now no better off for my in class exam in two weeks, or my assignment due next month.

Third Exam: You could only do it once, and you needed 80% to pass. I went to my friend’s house, and we spent a whole heap of time studying each question, and then researching the answers. We were 100% sure we were 100% right. Because we had found each answer… somewhere. It turned out that we only got 75%, which isn’t a pass. This is frustrating, because we honestly believed that we were right.

The justification? The answers had to be the answers that the Uni wanted, and they had to be the answers from the syllabus, and related EQ documents. Not from any educational source- like our text book… *rolls eyes. Ah huh…

Again, I still have no idea which questions I got right, and which ones I got wrong. So there is no learning in this final exam- just pain and stress.

So lets have a look at how this whole online exam situation could have been better.

I understand that they don’t want you to do what i did in exam 1, so that’s why they don’t show you what you get right or wrong in the subsequent exams. BUT it would have been better if after I got 80%, it locked me out so I couldn’t do the exam again, and then showed me what I got right and wrong. That way I could use it as study material, and see where I went wrong. As it stands I could be completely off track on this subject and I would have no way of knowing. I could go into my exam thinking that I know about investigations, and not really have a clue.

It would have also helped to have a more user friendly platform. Let me tell you now, I do NOT find blackboard a user friendly method for doing online exams, nor for making them, and I have had experience with both. Online exams are one of those difficult things, that in all the different platforms I’ve used, I haven’t seen one which does it completely adequately.

One of the things I found really frustrating with these exams is that there were spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, and inconsistencies throughout a lot of the questions. As a learning professional it is VITAL that in online exams (or any exams) you take the time to check everything over. I am not saying that I do this all the time (even though I know I should), but it is really something that makes your students feel like they are participating in a quality exercise.

Adequate teaching on the subject is also really important. Anything you are planning on putting in your test should have been TAUGHT previously, not just left for the student to research. This is important because these are your key concepts, and the most important parts of the subject. If your students don’t know about these things, and don’t have accurate information on them, then you haven’t done your job.

So hopefully by looking at this example of how an online exam was done poorly, we can gain some understanding of how it can be done with excellence.

1. Tracking. Most course management systems will have some sort of tracking capabilities. Either that, or you can install Google Analytics, or another anylitics program onto it. This type of assessment is usually used as a way of  monitoring a student’s interaction with the learning materials. A disadvantage of this is that it is easily manipulated- once students know that this is part of the assessment, they can either just sit there and click on different sections while they read a magazine, or they can pay a sibling to sit there and click around.

If you do want to see how your students have engaged with all the course materials, then it might be an idea to request a reflection of the materials for them. The number of words should be relevant to the age and skill level of our students.

2. Online quizzes/ exams/ tests. They’re all the same thing, and they can all be done well, and not so well. I have recently had a rather negative experience to do with online exams, which I will share with you soon. For an online quiz to be done well, students must receive FEEDBACK! This is important, because otherwise your students will be unsure of where they have made their mistakes, and be unable to establish a correct answer.

When allowing students to do an online exam, you must assume that this is now an open book exams. With miracles like spotlight on macs, and just google in general, you can be sure that this more then one way that your student can find the information they’re after. Not just in the text book on their lap.

It is my personal belief that assessment should be open-book (article on this to come), and I therefore encourage my students to use the knowledge that they have to create more knowledge, even while they’re doing their exam.

3. Contribution Observations. This is probably THE most time consuming form of assessment. To browse through your online course forums, or wikis, to extablish what people have written has got to be painful.

A sensible way around this is to get students to submit all their forum responses in one paper (this is best done with a synopsis of what happened previously in the discussion, and after the student’s input). If students have editing a wiki page, or something similar, then they should include a quote from the page, and also an explanation of why they wrote what they did, and how they influenced the learning environment of the wiki.

4. Assignments. The age old form of assessment, which can still be used in online learning. It is my recommendation that students submit PDF files to you (via a dropbox, or email), so that they can be sure that their work is not tampered with. You may like to either use a program like Adobe Acrobat Professional to edit the pdfs with your comments and corrections, or you could simply print them out, and then scan them back to students (highlighter doesn’t scan well).

Steve Jobs is a great example of someone who almost always produces a quality presentation, that both excites, and engages us. Here is his March 6th (2008) keynote, if you want to make reference to what I’m talking about. Lets look at some of things that Jobs does to create these presentations.

1. Practice, practice, practice. Practicing is important, one because it gives you a chance to fix any mistakes, and two, because it helps with your confidence.

ref: “Presentation Tips”

2. Tell them where you’re going. In this particular keynote (above) Jobs welcomes everyone, and then explains that there are four things he is going to talk about. It’s important to establish a frame for the presentation so that the people listening feel more comfortable, and to build up their schematic framework around the subject.

3. Make them know this is important. If this is something important enough to talk to your collegues or students about, then it’s important enough to make a big deal of. It’s important enough to put effort into your VOICE and into any other visual aides you might need. If you are talking about how we need to taking a stance against bullying in schools, and you just stand there looking bored while you make your presentation, do you think others will be interested? Of course not!! Why would anyone want to be involved in your team/ cause/ company/ group if it looks boring, and YOU’RE NOT EVEN INTERESTED?!

4. Visuals are the key! Garr Reynolds write’s a great post about this same topic, and talks in great detail about the importance of visuals, using this same keynot presentation. Have a look here.

Using minimal pictures, but ones that clearly illustrate the point, and little to no words really does increase viewer interest and help people to remember what they’re meant to.

5. Make sure it’s relevant. People don’t want to know a million and one statistics that don’t effect them. If all you (convinsingly) tell them is that it will benfit them in some great way, then you’re a step ahead already.

Carmine Gallo, talks about this in her article, “How to Wow ‘Em Like Steve Jobs” the importance of selling the benefits- a very important part of good presentations.

6. Great start, Great finish. When you start your presentation you want to get people’s attention and you want to give them good quality information that will make them realise that the information you’re about to give them is important, and it’s worthy of their attention. Similarly, when someone walks away from your presentation the most prominent thing in their mind will be the end. End with a stong, substancial point, and entusiastic personality, and you will have landed a winner.

Here is a great slide show outlining some key points to remember! And another here.